Music Specialist as a Whole-School Influencer  

• Debrah Fordice
• Posted 9/5/22
• 0 comments

After 39 years in various teaching positions from Pre-K to graduate school, I recently retired after teaching elementary music during a pandemic. What a way to go out, watching ZOOM boxes of kindergarteners somersaulting on bunk beds or being fed PB & J sandwiches during music class. My lucky neighbors had the extra special pandemic bonus of recorder music streaming through my open office windows. You know the story. But in all sincerity, it was so much fun to once again participate in music-making joy with young children.   

Over the course of my career, I sometimes taught music and sometimes taught general elementary education. People would often ask me which I liked better. “Apples and oranges, really…” was my reply. But within my own teaching, it was more like fruit salad. Since I had studied both general elementary and music education, I integrated vocabulary, tools, and processes to develop musical skills while supporting a foundation for reading. Patterns and sequences within rhythm and rhyme align directly with patterning and sequencing skills necessary to hear and articulate sounds of letters and words. One discipline strengthens the other. 

As we celebrate National Literacy Month, I encourage you to think about making that fruit salad. It’s so delicious and healthy for growing children, and you will find it quite tasty yourself! Your students will delight in stretching and shrinking their fingers around musical sounds and lyrics just like they do back in their general classroom. 

Being able to support literacy instruction was one of many things I appreciated when teaching elementary music. More broadly, I enjoyed being able to work with everyone in the school, follow students over multiple years, and see the big picture. I hope these thoughts below resonate with you and remind you, in addition to the great fortune of making music with children, of how special it is to be an elementary music teacher. 

1) Music is culturally essential.

In our discipline, we have coined and shined the phrase “music for music’s sake.” Perhaps we need to shift that idea to focus on the essential role music plays overall within any culture, impacting all aspects of life. As a music teacher, it is possible to have students practice musical skills WHILE applying them to both “soft” and other academic skills. We do it all the time! For example, when we do call and response in a drum circle we develop listening skills, increase collaboration, raise awareness of others, take turns, build community, AND improve rhythmic skills–all at the same time. Using parts of the brain that develop musical skills simultaneously helps kids learn sounds and patterns for early literacy.  

2) Teaching children over many years gives us a longitudinal perspective.

Elementary music teachers are one of the few teachers in a school who develop relationships with many or even all children in the building. Music teachers are key observers and influencers in children’s lives over time. We should be central to significant decisions that affect our students. 

3) Since we work with everyone in the school, let’s use the microphone more.

Music teachers can shape student-driven, all-school celebrations. We can involve and educate the community through “informances” (concerts). We can help the whole school plan a surprise for a beloved staff member who is moving away or retiring. We can help turn a school mission statement into “kid language” through guided composition and regular whole-school singing of a school song. We can lead drum circles and Orff ensembles in the main entry before school starts every Friday, gathering all students and staff as they arrive into a community of pride. The possibilities are powerful and many!  

4) Music teachers can and should be school leaders.

Music teachers are typically effective communicators and creative solution-seekers. Yet we too often remain on the fringe rather than become school leaders. School leadership teams need to have representation from the arts–and from someone who observes students over time. This relates strongly to Point 2 above. Because music teachers are one of the few teachers who see children over multiple years, we should FEEL AND BE REGARDED AS CENTRAL to a school, NOT on the fringe. And because of schools’ focus on literacy development, particularly at the primary level, music teachers who can speak the language of early literacy will feel more a part of the team and more empowered to lead.  

5) We must do all we can to support students’ post-pandemic learning.

We need to pull out all the stops. Young children have missed out on typical early literacy instruction. It’s everybody’s job to help them catch up. We’re not teaching “reading” or “math” or “music.” We’re teaching KIDS.   

6) We want music instruction to be seen as central, not fringe.

Let’s face it. In some cases the arts are cut because there isn’t enough money to go around and they are not perceived as essential or “core.” So, if you can’t beat’em, join’em! In a good way. Music teachers can powerfully and productively help the common literacy cause without sacrificing depth of music instruction.  

As you begin this new academic year, may these points remind you of your unique potential to integrate, influence, collaborate, and lead in your school(s). Finally, may this year make you prouder than ever to be “the music teacher.”